Update: I was unfortunately not aware of Shamus Young's severe criticism of Fallout 3 available here to link in the original piece and I regret that. It dovetails rather nicely with what I've written and it's much better executed than my piece. I strongly recommend anyone...

GAMING NEWS

Remember the time when you could buy a game and it would be the complete game? No retailer pre-order bonus nonsense? No taking away content just to sell it later as DLC? Well, developer From Software and North American publisher NamcoBandai remembers that time, especially DaisukeUchiyama, Chief Publishing Producer for NamcoBandai:

As announced at Gamescom, we are not planning any DLCs for Dark Souls. The game is deeply balanced with its exquisite enemy placements and map designs. We intend on focusing a lot of our resources towards fine tuning and balancing the game, and feel that additional content such as DLCs may hinder the game balance we have achieved for all players who pick up this game.

It will be such a great pleasure if there are many voices from fans asking for DLC, but I am very confident that the game is fully complete and everyone will be satisfied with the game without any additional contents.

In addition, we have emphasized RPG elements so that players have multiple ways of enjoying the game and exploring the vast world we have created. Depending on the role a player takes in the game will impact the actions carried out in the game and the different RPG elements will bring many variations towards how a player can play their own roles. This is another reason why we think we do not need DLCs.

Sure, the PS2 wasn't a long time ago (though I'm sure some of you were thinking about blowing Nintendo cartridges), but in this new online console age, nearly every major publisher has pre-order, DLC, Collector's Edition shenanigans that make players wonder whether they're really getting the full package. On that note, the Limited Collector's Edition of Dark Souls comes in a collectible tin and includes a bonus artbookat no extra charge. That's right, it's still $59.99; that's a thank you to the fans if there ever was one:

Finally, I would like to be fair to all fans of Dark Souls. I do not intend on providing any items or weapons which a player can buy in order to become advantageous in the game. I would rather prefer to provide an equal amount of opportunities to everyone in order to strive and achieve getting all items based on the effort a player makes. Ultimately, we aim for players to sincerely feel a sense of accomplishment when conquering the difficult tasks in the game.